Canadian Firm Seeks $725 Million
From U.S., Citing Nafta Provision

By

Tamsin Carlisle Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated Jan. 13, 1999 12:48 a.m. ET

Canada's Loewen Group Inc. and its founder Raymond Loewen are seeking a minimum US$725 million in damages from the U.S. government in a claim filed under an obscure provision of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or Nafta.

According to a notice of claim filed with the U.S. State Department, the Vancouver, British Columbia, funeral-services concern is seeking to recover the $175 million it paid -- and now claims it was "coerced" into paying -- to settle a 1995 lawsuit in a Mississippi state court. The...